THE LARGE GREEN-BILLED MALKOHA. 
121 
Legs and feet dark plumbeous ; claws black ; bill apple-green ; orbital 
skin pale green inclining to bluish ; irides dark brown. [Davison.) 
Length 13 inches, tail 7, wing 4*5, tarsus I'l, bill from gape 1*4. The 
female is of the same size. 
This species_, according to Mr. Davison, is found in Teuasserim as far 
north as Lemyne, a village about a day^s march north of Yea, but it is 
nowhere very common. 
It ranges through the Malay peninsula to Sumatra, Java and Borneo. 
Mr. Davison says that it frequents the densest parts of the evergreen 
forests and cane-brakes and densest o£ scrubby jungle. In all its habits 
it resembles Rhopodytes, but has quite a different note, a peculiar cat-like 
mew (not the chuckle of the others), which it utters at short intervals as it 
threads its way through the tangled foliage. It is almost invariably found 
in pairs. They also feed apparently entirely (I have dissected many) on 
insects.'" 
Genus RHOPODYTES, Cab. et Hein. 
504. EHOPODYTES TRISTIS. 
THE LARGE GREEN-BILLED MALKOHA. 
Melias tristis, Less. Tr. d'Orn. p. 132 ; id. Voy. Belang. p. 231, Ois. pi. 1. Zan- 
clostomus tristis, Jerd. B. hid. i. p. 346 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 142 ; 
Bl. B. Burm. p. 81 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p, 58 ; Oates, S. F. v. p. 144. 
Rhopodytes tristis, Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 312 ; Hwjie 8r Dav. S. F. vi. 
p. 162 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 89 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 168 ; Oates, S. F. x. 
p. 196. 
Description. — Male and female. Lores sparingly covered with black 
feathers ; forehead and feathers over the eye white_, the bases of the feathers 
black; upper plumage dark greenish grey, the front of the crown centred with 
black; wings, coverts, scapulars, upper tail-coverts and tail shining green, 
the primaries darker, and the tail-feathers tipped broadly with white ; under- 
side of tail dull black ; cheeks and throat greyish white, with black shafts ; 
neck and breast grey tinged with rusty, the shafts black ; abdomen, flanks, 
thighs, vent and under tail-coverts smoky brown tinged with green ; centre 
of the abdomen paler; under wing- coverts smoky brown tinged with 
green. 
Bill bright green, pinkish about the nostrils ; orbital skin purplish red ; 
iris hazel-brown; mouth dusky; legs greenish slaty; claws dark horn. 
The female has the orbital skin blood-red ; mouth deep black iris red. 
